A girl's name writes RBL history

Unbeaten regional league champions

… after the 1:1 draw against Union Berlin's second team in the opening match, the first voices were raised that said promotion to the 3rd division was doomed to failure, but the team got better and better from game to game and climbed to first place on matchday 4. The Red Bulls were not going to let themselves be pushed out of this position and were already crowned champions of the Regionalliga Nordost with three matchdays to go before the end of the season.

But the championship does not mean direct promotion, which we had previously missed twice in a row. In the 2012/13 season, the winners of the regional leagues and the runner-up in the southwest division have to go into a promotion round for the first time. Six teams, of which only three can be promoted - for RB Leipzig, the often-quoted bottleneck on the way to the Bundesliga. "We marched through the season, of course. But we always had in the back of our minds that the championship would not be enough, there would be two play-offs. We wanted to be promoted, we had to be promoted. The pressure was great and increased more and more the closer that day came," remembers Fabio Coltorti.

Relegation duels against the champions of the West division

The two of them watched the draw on May 12th in the stadium catacombs. Since first place was already decided, many of the regular players were rested in the last matches. Liza Grundig, then Miss East Germany, drew the lots during half-time of the home game against FSV Zwickau. The pretty Berliner fished the winner of the West division (which had not yet been decided at that point) out of the bowl. The supposedly toughest nut to crack.

A week later, the opponent is certain: Lotte. On that day, a small town of 14,000 inhabitants, through no fault of its own, later became synonymous with one of the most important RBL locations. Every RB fan knows the question "Do you still remember Lotte?"

Before the dramatic Lotte Festival in two acts begins, we win the Saxony Cup. With a 4:2 victory against Chemnitzer FC, who were already playing in the 3rd division at the time. 16,864 fans in the Red Bull Arena watch a thrilling evening of football. It is the perfect way to get in the mood for the promotion battle.

30,000 fans and a perfect starting position

Almost twice as many spectators came to the first leg against Lotte. 30,104 - for the first time more than 30,000 in a league game (we count the promotion games as such, ed.). "The euphoria before the game was enormous. It was also something special for us to play at home in front of such a crowd. During the season there were an average of 8,000 fans there," remembers Dominik Kaiser. "1 dream, 2 games, 3rd league" - this slogan became the motto of these days. In the first duel, everything went according to plan. Even without captain Daniel Frahn, who was at least on the bench after a torn medial ligament and a miraculous recovery.

Frahn's friend Stefan Kutschke, who had been more of a follower until then, became the leader and scored in a close and thrilling match after a foul on Carsten Kammlott in the 47th minute to make it 1-0. Goal number two came six minutes before the final whistle from substitute Matthias Morys with a bounce. "This gave us a good starting position. The pressure remained enormous, however, and everything had the feel of a final. This tension was felt throughout the club. Many employees had experienced the two missed attempts in the past two years. There was also a certain fear that things could go wrong again."

Fan train to Westphalia, public viewing in Leipzig

The fans, however, are riding a wave of euphoria. The fan train to Lotte is fully booked after just one day, with over 2,000 Leipzig residents accompanying the Red Bulls to Lower Saxony. For the first time, pubs in Leipzig are showing an RB Leipzig match live on TV. The return match is being broadcast on a large screen on Cottaweg. The Bulls' entourage sets off the day before. Exit at the Lotte/Osnabrück motorway junction. Overnight stay in Osnabrück before heading to Lotte the next day.

The connect-m-Arena is located in the middle of fields, giving the explosive sporting situation an idyllic character, which does not match the importance of the upcoming game at all. Dominik Kaiser: "We didn't notice it at all - on the way to the stadium we only saw that there were red and white Leipzig fans everywhere." The away section is packed and sold out. Everyone is convinced that we will be promoted. In 90 minutes we will be a third division team, that was the general opinion of those who travelled with us. A false assumption. Because a drama develops that no one was expecting.

The shock moment seconds before the final whistle

The game starts chaotically, it's tough, Lotte wants to force an early goal, Leipzig holds out with a well-organized defense. The defense secures the 0:0 until the 27th minute, then Tobias Willers nods in a free kick at the far post. Willers. This name also goes down in RBL history. Halftime. Change of sides. In the second half, the Red Bulls initially have the better chances, then Lotte comes back. Fabio Coltorti prevents Lotte from scoring a second goal in the 71st minute with a huge reflex save against Aleksandar Kotuljac. The Swiss still has a memory from the first leg on his right thigh: the stud marks of Amir Shapourzadeh, who was sent off for this foul. "But that didn't hinder me, even though it was a painful kick. The second goal conceded in injury time was much more painful," says Fabio, raising his eyebrows.

There is an incredible tension in the stadium when regular playing time is over. Get promotion T-shirts? Fill beer glasses? No! The lead is too small for that. The RBL media team sits in the press box, biting their nails and with their fingers on the enter key to send the prepared promotion news out into the online world. Seconds later, the finger drops past the keyboard and the computer sinks to the floor of the Lotter Stadium when substitute Dennis Schmidt scores to make it 2-0 in the fourth minute of stoppage time and takes the Sportfreunde into extra time.

"It was obviously a situation that we had to get over first, because it was – as the saying goes – psychologically the worst time," says Dominik Kaiser. Every player deals with this shock differently. Fabio Coltorti, for example, still remembers Bastian Schulz: "He couldn't say a word and stood on the pitch crying.

Extra time and RBL turns up the heat

But above all, Daniel Frahn, together with Alexander Zorniger and our team psychologist Philipp Laux, found the right words to pick us up and bring us back to reality. Because it wasn't over - we were still in the race and knew that we would come very close to our goal with just one goal." The tactical formations had long since been thrown out the window by this point. Lotte has four strikers, Leipzig four central defenders on the pitch.

When extra time kicked off, the Red Bulls were suddenly fully there and seemed fitter than their opponents. "We noticed that we had more in the tank than Lotte and of course we always had the away goals rule in mind - one goal and Lotte would need to score two more," explains Dominik Kaiser about the improvement in performance. Ralf Rangnick, who is always caught on TV with a tense expression, has no doubts about promotion: "After the goals we conceded, I was relatively sure that we would still make it and so I stayed pretty calm. Somehow I knew that it couldn't go wrong that day."

Morys comes on, Kutschke completes

Our sports director was right. It was the fifth minute of extra time. Matthias Morys, who came on as a substitute in the 61st minute, won the ball around 30 meters from the goal, moved past four opponents to the left towards the goal and spooned the ball into the box with his right foot - a harmless shot. But Tobias Willers put his head in the way when trying to clear the ball and deflected the ball unstoppably to make it 1:2. An explosion of emotions followed. It was clear to everyone that nothing was going to go wrong now. Our team controlled the game, Lotte had little to counter it.

In the 110th minute, Bastian Schulz storms towards Sportfreunde goalkeeper David Buchholz. Foul. Whistle. Penalty. Stefan Kutschke steps up again, chooses the same corner as in the first leg and nails the ball into the goal to make it 2-2. The remaining minutes are pure enjoyment. "The fourth league was nice, time for us to go" becomes a symbolic, constant chant among the fans.

Fabio Coltorti had the last touch of the ball in the fourth division. He dropped the ball ten seconds before the final whistle and signaled to the referee to blow the whistle. "I don't really remember. Everything came out with the final whistle. That was the height of emotions - in the meantime, the Bundesliga vision had been so far away for me and now we had finally made the next step towards it. By moving to Leipzig, I took a lot of risks, accepted the separation from my family and of course had doubts."

Tears and four hours of non-stop partying

The tears flow. This time they are tears of joy. Then the crazy promotion celebration begins. Little is planned, a lot happens spontaneously. When the team gets on the bus after the dressing room party, they don't yet know what to expect. "We thought we were going straight back to Leipzig. But suddenly the bus stopped at a train station just behind Lotte. We went down the stairs, almost all of us hadn't showered and were still wearing our playing clothes," remembers Dominik Kaiser. The fan train is waiting at the train station. It's jam-packed with over 600 fans, employees and companions.

The team gets on board and an incredible four-hour party develops in the train carriages. "I will never forget this celebration - what happened on the train was unbelievable. In a positive sense," Dominik enthuses. The players mingle with the fans or enjoy their triumph in the separate team compartment.

Shortly before midnight, the train steams into the main station. Thousands of fans line the platform and celebrate the heroes of promotion on a legendary day. Lotte's dramatic fairy tale will remain in everyone's memory. "For me, it was the best of the three promotions. Simply because the pressure was so enormous, everyone expected us to make it and the game escalated so dramatically," says Fabio Coltorti...

*This text appeared in September 2016 in the KLUB magazine of RB Leipzig.